Method of manufacturing open-hearth steel



Feb. 16 ,1926. 1,573,004

,4. D. JONES ET AL METHOD OF MANUFACTURING OPEN HEARTH STEEL Filed Dec. 6, 1921 Patented Feb. 16, 1926.

UNITED s'rars s PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES DYER JONES, OF SAULT STE. MARIE, ONTARIO, CANADA, AND EARL EWING LITZ, OF EAST CHICAGO, INDIANA.

Application filedDecember 6, 1921; Serial No. 520,393.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, J AMES DYER J ones, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and resident of the city of Sault Ste. Marie, in the Province of Ontario and Dominion of Canada, and EARL EWING LITZ, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of East ihicago, Indiana, United States of America, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Manufacturing Open-Hearth Steel, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to methods of manufacturing open hearth steel, and the objects of the invention are to obtain a greater efficiency in the manufacture of open hearth steel by maintaining the surface of the bath at a high temperature and preventing the creation of insulation between the heating medium and the bath.

Further objects are to reduce the time required for the operation and to avoid the time at present lost in reversing the furnace.

Further objects still are to lessen the expense of repairs, to eliminate delays in operation, to attain a maximum output from the furnace and to enable the various operations to be performed continuously.

It consists essentially of heating the bath by means of a plurality of high velocity flames operated simultaneously, in the manner hereinafter described in detail in the accompanying specification and drawings.

The process may be carried out in any desired type of open hearth furnace and may readily also be applied by slight modifications of open hearth furnaces already built.

For the sake of illustration, we have shown one form of apparatus which may be used to carry out the process.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a sectional elevation of such apparatus.

Figure 2 is a sectional plan.

l igure 3 is a section on the line 0300 of Figure 1.

In the drawings, like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Referring to the drawings:

A indicates the furnace proper having a hearth or crucible B constructed of suitable refractory material, inaccordance with the present practice inthe art. The furnace is, provided at suitable points around the periphery with fuel and air ports 12 each having a burner 10 thereinadapted to combine for burning fuel such as gas, powdered coal, oil or the like, with pre-heated air, both under pressure preferably but not'necessarily of sufficient amount to maintain a higher pressure inside the furnace than the outside atmospheric pressure. The construction of a burner of this type does not form part of the present invention, nor does the combination within the burners of the fueland air form part thereof.

The burners may be conveniently supplied with heated air from a regenerative stove, as described in our co-pending application Serial 463856, filed April 23rd, 1921. It will be observed that a plurality of separated burners are provided, in this instance three, separated equidistantly from each other around the periphery of the furnace, which in this instance is circular.

These burners are designed to be used simultaneously, whereby the flames produced will meet at substantially the centre and effectively heat the surface of the bath.

The burners are directed slightly downwardly, whereby the flame produced will impinge on the bath, so that combustion takes place immediately adjacent to the surface ofthe bath and it is not possible for any insulation such as a layer of products.

, readily be worked out by those skilled in the art. With tar or oil, we find it convenient to operate with seventy pounds pressure on the tar or oil and similar pressure on the steam used to atomize the same. The air pressure used therewith would depend upon the size of the port opening.

The products of combustion from within the furnace are designed to pass out through the outlet 15 from whence they may pass flames operating on the surface of the bath are thus brought to an; exceedingly high temperature and the furnace may be continuously operated in one. direction. .As many changes could be. made in the above method and many widely different embodiments of our invention within the scope-of the claims, constructed without de- .parting from the spirit or scope thereof, .it is intended that all-matter contained in the accompanying specification and draw- .ingsshall be interpreted as illustrative and .not an a limiting sense.

' What we-claim as our invention is 1. The herein described method of operating an open hearth furnace whlchcomprises heating the bath by a plurality of simultaneously operated and separated high I velocity flames, circularly arranged equidlstantly from each other and radiating from the wall towards the centre of the furnace.

2. The herein described method of heating the bath in an open hearth furnace, which comprises causing a plurality of circularly arranged equidistant flames to impinge upon the surface of the bath from the outside to the centre thereof. Y l

3. The herein described method of operating an open hearth furnace, which comprises heating the bath by a plurality of simultaneously operated'and' separated high velocity flames, circularly arranged equidistantly from'each other to impinge from the surface of the bath from the outside to the centre-thereof.

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands. 7

JAMES DYER JONES. EARL EWING LITZ. 

